Rangers earn road win against Blues on J.T. Miller's third overtime goal of season

ST. LOUIS — Overtime is Miller Time for the Rangers this season.

J.T. Miller scored another overtime goal Thursday night to give the Rangers a 2-1 victory over the St. Louis Blues at Enterprise Arena. He took a pass from Vincent Trocheck, took advantage of a screen set by Vladislav Gavrikov and whipped a shot from the top of the slot past goalie Jordan Binnington at 2:21 of the extra period.

It was the third overtime goal Miller has scored this season. He also has a shootout game-winner for the Rangers, who are 6-4 in games that have gone beyond regulation.

“I don’t know. Sometimes they go in, sometimes they don’t,’’ Miller said when asked why he’s so prolific in overtime. “But I feel like I’ve had some success in previous years in overtime.

“Today was kind of a weird one. I was pretty tired out there, and they had a little breakdown in their coverage, and Vince made a hell of a play. I tried to shoot the puck a little more today. And it’s nice [to get off] the schneid a little bit.’’

Rookie Gabe Perreault had the Rangers’ only goal in regulation, his first in the NHL, and Igor Shesterkin made 26 saves. He did most of his best work in the third period, when the Blues — who were playing on the second night of a back-to-back — dominated possession, hemmed the Rangers into their own zone for most of the period and outshot them 11-5.

“He made some good saves for us,’’ coach Mike Sullivan said. “I thought the first two periods, we were probably the better team. I thought they were the better team in the third period. They pushed. They elevated their intensity in the third.’’

The Rangers (17-15-4), who were without Artemi Panarin because of illness, dominated the first two periods but had only a 1-1 tie to show for it.

Perreault’s goal came on the power play at 6:02 of the second period when Will Cuylle’s shot from the wing banked in off his skate. “I kind of blacked out,’’ Perreault said. “It’s kind of a pretty lucky one, but it feels good to get the first one.’’

That tied the score after a goal by the Blues’ Jonatan Berggren with 1:02 left in the first period. It was a weird one and came after Shesterkin turned the puck over. He misfired on a pass to Gavrikov on the low left boards and Dalibor Dvorsky got it and passed to Berggren in the corner.

Berggren, who was playing his second game for the Blues after being claimed on waivers Tuesday from Detroit, walked in along the goal line and fired a shot from the bottom edge of the right circle that went up past Shesterkin’s mask and into the top near corner.

At that point, the Rangers, who have struggled so much at home, looked as though they were playing at Madison Square Garden, especially given that they were wearing their blue home jerseys at the request of the Blues, who wanted to wear their newly designed white road uniforms for the home fans.

As they have done in so many games at home this year (where they are 4-10-3), the Rangers dominated possession and play in the first two periods but weren’t winning.

Without Panarin, Sullivan was forced to ditch the five-forward power play he’s been using since point man Adam Fox went on long-term injured reserve with an upper-body injury. He inserted rookie defenseman Scott Morrow as the point man on the first unit.

The power play went 1-for-2, and though it was the second unit that produced the goal, the first unit looked good moving the puck around and creating scoring chances.

“I thought [Morrow] made some real good decisions up there,’’ Sullivan said. “I thought when there were opportunities to put the puck on the net, he was willing to shoot the puck. I thought he did a real good job managing the puck up there.’’

Notes & quotes: Sullivan said he had hoped Panarin would be able to play. “We were hoping that he was going to feel better throughout the course of the day,’’ he said. “He tried to get some food in him, but he just didn’t feel well enough and have the energy to be effective.’’ . . . Fox, who has missed nine games, traveled with the team to St. Louis and took part in the morning skate . . . Jonny Brodzinski and Urho Vaakanainen were the scratches.

By Colin Stephenson

colin.stephenson@newsday.comColinSNewsday

Colin Stephenson covers the Rangers for Newsday. He has spent more than two decades covering the NHL and just about every sports team in the New York metropolitan area.